Big Ideas — Lyrics

1. Something's Got to Break

you got your lemon and posie icing spread immaculately thin you got a love thats so enticing you have to squirm to hold it in and when the crowd starts getting raucous you may try to save your cake but oh somethings got to break oh oh oh

well i saw you out on the highway you had a glass upon your roof it was a glass of lemon iced tea forgotten and aloof and you were driving like a maniac with a need to overtake you know somethings got to break oh oh oh

well its a fragile world with a beefedup hairdo sippin refreshment pretending not to care you can throw your selfcontrol off the roof of a building but it dont guarantee that you wont get filled in theres nothing sure so just stay turned on and listen to the choir while you sing your song sing your song yeah sing your song but listen to the choir while you sing your song

oh oh oh somethings got to break oh oh oh

well you wander back to the party with a couple fewer teeth your left eyeball is smarting and youre shaking like a leaf well you fumble into exile on a haunted fire escape cos you know somethings got to break oh oh oh

theres nothing sure so just stay turned on and listen to the choir while you sing your song

oh somethings got to break oh oh oh

2. Teacher Showed Up to Learn

teacher showed up to learn he said my lessons have all burned the fire started in my head and left my pockets full of lead he kicked a widget with his shoes it also left me with the blues i meant to set this classroom free illuminate what none could see

lalalalala release myself to someone else lalalalala now im free so you teach me

teacher showed up to learn beneath his arm a potted fern i introduce you all to fred whos from an old dry river bed we thought the teacher was a freak its then that fred began to speak he said the words we could not say and made us ancient in a day

la la la la la the naked eyes a little shy lalalalala your senses fight to put you right a la la la la la la la la la

he kicked a walnut with his shoes it also left me with the blues i meant to set this classroom free illuminate what none could see

la la la la la the moral heres a bit unclear la la la la la stay awake stay awake la la la la la la la la la la

3. Raisins

walking to the bus stop i tripped on a thing i dusted all the rust off and bit through the string i dont exactly know how i got to be king but everywhere i go now they say hey whats that thing

i wish i knew because i long for some direction and i want some clear connections

mystery is charming as long as youre pretty but it can be alarming for this little kitty power over peoples a carnival ride with comforting and lethally narcotic lullabies

the dreams are pretty but i long for some direction and i want a real connection

raisins in my coffee toothpaste in my hand everythings exotic if you know where to stand but weve been bored for two hundred years or more shipwrecked on this cold atlantic shore

and i long for some direction and i want some clear connection with you and i want for some direction and i want to find some connection with you and i want for some direction and i long to find some connection and im thrown in six directions and i want to find this connection with you and im going to find this connection o yes i will

4. Light in My Mind

well the days pass slowly in my dark little house where i try to keep my heart safe from harm but i remember a time like a light in my mind when you held me close in your arms

and with everyone i meet im so timid and shy though i try to compensate with my charms but i remember a time like a light in my mind when you held me close in your arms

sometimes i feel like a walking disaster and in my heart theres a screaming alarm but i remember a time like a light in my mind when you held me close in your arms

de de de de de dedede...

well id better hang the phone ive got a long way to walk and the dark sky is threatening to storm but i remember a time like a light in my mind when you held me close in your arms

sometimes i feel like a walking disaster and in my heart theres a pounding alarm but i remember a time like a light in my mind when you held me close in your arms yes i remember a time like a light in my mind when you held me close in your arms

5. EOW

and i came asking you to play on the forty five hundred thousandth day and i kept wondering what youd say at the end at the end

release the clasp on your lunchbox to trade your bounty for the rocks that make your eyes flicker like a fox at the end at the end of the world

hooooo allah

you smile and don your finest lace let the starlight gently caress your face there is no memory to erase at the end at the end

i sing my sweetest lullaby and rock you gently when you cry but nothing can sustain a lie at the end at the end of the world

hoooo allah hoooo allah

and lunar landings come unmanned and lightbulb culture will expand but autopilots must come to land at the end

and asia was the first to drown her feet were plucked from off the ground and from our grief emerged the sound of the end of the end

and pulling rhythms from the ground with the terror of impassioned clowns who know theyre soon to come unbound we again to the end

6. Catalpas

catalpas blossom wonderwhite holding their china to the light youve got your head screwed on right with plum and coconut delight

walking home every day on a sunshine ray you are high on the light and you walk upright come far come near through the atmosphere colorscolorscolorscolorscolors blue yellow green grey orange like a tangerine lemon brown sparkle on a windshield arc of a rainbow galvanized fencepost brick shadow grass flower porch puddle asphalt brass but

catalpas blossom wonderwhite holding their china to the light youve got your head screwed on right with plum and coconut delight

and the music of feet on a butteryellow seat of a blonde cadillac by a barnred shack and the voice of a girl as she dips and twirls chantingchantingchantingchantingchanting nonsense ditties full of infinity and her hands full of dimes accompany her rhymes and the screen door slams mother keys in her hand put your seatbelt she said while overhead the

catalpas blossom wonderwhite holding their china to the light youve got your head screwed on right with plum and coconut delight

7. Rainsong

when it rains for days on end and you find youve taken to screaming at the wind it floods your ears and soaks your mind and releases fears that promptly turn you blind you had the answers rendered plain but now theyre soggy and blurred with rain you feel an awkward uncertainty you fumble vaguely through your pockets for your keys but keys are useless against this pain against this boredom against this rain something eludes you in recent events something refuses to make sense if this is tender if this is sweet why does it feel so lonely out here in the street in the rain when it rains when it burns when it takes the truth shoved into your face to learn stories fail experience lies and life is just one big wet collection of tries

the weatherman steps up to the bluescreen and with a smile to the camera proclaims that the barometric pressure is static and that would provide for more rain

but the anchors with hatred and bloodlust they screamed at him calling him names they threatened to murder his family if his forecast he would not reframe

and he pulled down his pants and he showed them the moon and it rose like a huge opalescent balloon throwing silvery beams through the studio gloom pulling the water tank out from the edge of the room

and its clean and it washes us clear and it wets us down behind the ears and it ponders us pondering why through its puddles like windows of sky

when it rains when it pours when you find its coming up through your floors when it punches up your steep steep bills and the only ones with insurance also have gills well youd like to feel cheated and you might like to weep but youre just too exhausted and its time to sleep

8. Big Ideas

big ideas get smaller the closer you get toys and ants grow taller but big ideas retreat they come sometimes in the dark of night or in the heat of sharp debate midnight black or jewel bright horizon gold of heavens gate

standing in a parking lot excalibur to the sky birth of words and rhythmic thoughts questions starting with why and then the complications come redescribing bar by bar the cage wrought for protection from gravity and the stars

big ideas get smaller but theyre dangerous pets trust me seize them by the collar and theyll kill you to get free so dont you take those wild things home lest thou art prepared to know thyself cos yo its a jungle in your heart and armageddon in your soul

9. Blessed Be the Name

blessed be the name of the man who stole my car he will not travel far with out me ive got no time for blame or to reassert my claim this spell im under wont last till next thursday i see him driving by and he knows im scandalized he looks me in the eye and rounds the corner this vision i endure through the window as i stir my buttered oatmeal every morning on the burner

blessed be the heretofore unmentionable doubt that turns me inside out when im alone blessed be the voices weaving through the summer breeze pealing laughter and celebratory tones in my time of doubt i throw my eyes upon the sky and i search in vain for my familiar wantings but emptiness it seems has cast its hook into my dreams and depopulated me of my sweet dauntings

blessed be defeat and surrender in the street as i throw myself amidst the morning traffic last week i threw my faith into the backseat of my car where it melted to a star of glowing plastic without it i have been reduced to ugliness and sin not to mention all those grumpy little chocolates now the man whose name ive come to prey upon comes rolling through the dawn a lump of phosphorescence in his pocket

blessed be the name of the man who stole my car we shook hands in a bar but was i dreaming this spell ive cast upon myself has eased my consciousness upon a shelf occupied by the likes of giants in the open spaces ive begun to effervesce as a playground gives its guests to joyful screaming now suffice to say that ive got no more time today to give to cars thieves faith oatmeal and other lusty tyrants

10. Hymn for Sal

you and sal wander down to the steelyards and bottom grounds where the docks of downtown press the river and its an uncertain space where girders and iron braces like cobwebs and lace bind the twilight and sal says to you i think youve a clearer view will you answer me true this conundrum and he uncurls his palm you can feel his unfolding calm as he sings you a psalm

he said i feel so low and i gave to a strong undertow memory leaks and you lose what you know and i feel so wrong with the righteous and the strong canvas stretches for centuries on and the sky is so wide like the distance i have inside i wake up at night and i cry and i cry cos i feel so lost so crossed

and the worlds turning blue the sun has gone out of view theres an old pair of shoes and a corpse of sparrow and youre a child of the sky so you take to your wings and fly over towers that rise in steep crescendo and sal follows on like a gold ball of crumpled yarn over chasms that yawn knocking every tower door but the gods have gone home to polish up all their chrome and so onward we roam and i feel so wrong the distances are so strong nothing comes to break my song my reveal is so deep violetblack over slumbering sheep with a diamond eye looking over my keep and i feel so old midnight comes so cold the arms of the universe circle and holding my soul o my soul

11. Gone

dogs barking at the dawn clouds of brass silver flame brothers asleep on the lawn wet with yesterdays rain you were born in a skyscraper tray ten thousand feet from the sea four hundred stories away from the dead and your first memory

paste some buckles to your shoes ease on down to the store neighbors staring at you when you drop all your change on the floor a neanderthal from aisle six leaving frozen boxes of peas crosses a sterile matrix with the sparkle of stars in her eyes

da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da

now angels are playing on your lawn rolling your brother around like a slumbering water balloon or a bag full of dreams on the ground you can see it from lightyears away as he cripples himself to succeed in the tumble of dreams as they play with his habits of distance and speed

la da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da

da da deum da da da da